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Why are there 17 million choices of toddler shoes? But also why are there no solid recommendations? Barefoot but supportive, PTs recommend these kinds but Podiatry recommend these kinds. Also WHY ARE THEY SO $. Literally middle-upper end of the line shoe I finally decided on is $40 for something he will outgrow in a few months. I spent entirely too much time on this topic tonight 🫠
 
MixedAnimals77 said:
Why are there 17 million choices of toddler shoes? But also why are there no solid recommendations? Barefoot but supportive, PTs recommend these kinds but Podiatry recommend these kinds. Also WHY ARE THEY SO $. Literally middle-upper end of the line shoe I finally decided on is $40 for something he will outgrow in a few months. I spent entirely too much time on this topic tonight 🫠
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If it’s Stride Rite, try the Stride Rites from Walmart. The early childhood PT at my work says they are basically the same and half the price.

I realize that, in making this comment, I am 100% adding to the problem, lol. Everyone has something to say!
 
MixedAnimals77 said:
Why are there 17 million choices of toddler shoes? But also why are there no solid recommendations? Barefoot but supportive, PTs recommend these kinds but Podiatry recommend these kinds. Also WHY ARE THEY SO $. Literally middle-upper end of the line shoe I finally decided on is $40 for something he will outgrow in a few months. I spent entirely too much time on this topic tonight 🫠
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Yours might be too young to do this, but we gave up and just let Toddler Bats pick his own shoes at this point 🤣
 
Hey y’all, does anyone have experience using Rover as a dog walker/pet sitter? I was supposed to return to my old clinic this summer but they got bought out and I found out they couldn’t take me back after a lot of summer opportunities were already closed :/ I have some job/externship applications out there but I’m not super hopeful and am thinking pet-sitting might be the best way for me to earn some money this summer. I’ve never used Rover before and would love to get some opinions before I spend money on their profile review fee!
 
mw1356 said:
Hey y’all, does anyone have experience using Rover as a dog walker/pet sitter? I was supposed to return to my old clinic this summer but they got bought out and I found out they couldn’t take me back after a lot of summer opportunities were already closed :/ I have some job/externship applications out there but I’m not super hopeful and am thinking pet-sitting might be the best way for me to earn some money this summer. I’ve never used Rover before and would love to get some opinions before I spend money on their profile review fee!
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@vampyrica
 
mw1356 said:
Hey y’all, does anyone have experience using Rover as a dog walker/pet sitter? I was supposed to return to my old clinic this summer but they got bought out and I found out they couldn’t take me back after a lot of summer opportunities were already closed :/ I have some job/externship applications out there but I’m not super hopeful and am thinking pet-sitting might be the best way for me to earn some money this summer. I’ve never used Rover before and would love to get some opinions before I spend money on their profile review fee!
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hihi! i've done rover for just about a year. it's very hit or miss, and it will take a while for you to get business (new profiles arent as heavily promoted), but it is worth it! i made quite a bit of money last year and have bookings all summer long. feel free to pm me (or dm me on IG, you have my personal one i believe) and i'm happy to talk about finances more
 
It’s been a fairly long time since I was a vet student, but I found most of my regular pet sitting clients as “hand-me-downs” from vet students who were graduating and either told me their clients needed someone to take over or I responded to fb posts in our class groups or emails from the school seeking a sitter. I wasn’t depending on it for income, but my two most regular families (one for occasional overnight farm stays, one for mid-day check-ins a couple times a week) both came that way and I “passed them down” to another first year when I graduated. The families liked the continuity of one sitter for four years.

There’s usually a lot of opportunity to sit for classmates on school breaks too, if you’re staying local. Might not hurt to sign up for Rover or a similar service too, but if you make it known that you’re available, I think you can pick up a fair amount of business from fellow students and faculty members.
 
unfortunately i’m home for the summer and can’t use facebook (didn’t delete my account properly back in the day, can’t get into that one or make a new one) but i may ask my parents to put smth out on facebook on my behalf for the summer 🙂
 
Us millennials need to acknowledge that we've decided to do weird names for our kids. I'm somewhat guilty; we slightly changed the spelling of a name. But sometimes I hear a name and I say to myself, "Why are we like this?" I want to make a bingo card for myself for the summer of kids named by millennials. Just don't know what my prize to myself would be
 
battie said:
Us millennials need to acknowledge that we've decided to do weird names for our kids. I'm somewhat guilty; we slightly changed the spelling of a name. But sometimes I hear a name and I say to myself, "Why are we like this?" I want to make a bingo card for myself for the summer of kids named by millennials. Just don't know what my prize to myself would be
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A capri sun
 
battie said:
Us millennials need to acknowledge that we've decided to do weird names for our kids. I'm somewhat guilty; we slightly changed the spelling of a name. But sometimes I hear a name and I say to myself, "Why are we like this?" I want to make a bingo card for myself for the summer of kids named by millennials. Just don't know what my prize to myself would be
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My son’s name is very classic but not overly common. What is Z’s baby name stereotype?
 
battie said:
I'm honestly not sure. I keep forgetting y'all are old enough to have very young kids 💀 Meanwhile, my BIL is 40 with a 1.5 year old
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Right? My gen Z sister is pregnant now and it just feels... very early? She was born in 2000, for goodness' sake, surely it wasn't tha---oh, right. It's 2026 now. Dang.

ETA: Also, realized I should probably mention this as it's been a long time since my original account was deleted. This is Elkhart; not sure if anyone remembers who I am and it looks like a lot of the people who were around when I was most active are gone now, but hey.
 
Imbridus said:
Right? My gen Z sister is pregnant now and it just feels... very early? She was born in 2000, for goodness' sake, surely it wasn't tha---oh, right. It's 2026 now. Dang.

ETA: Also, realized I should probably mention this as it's been a long time since my original account was deleted. This is Elkhart; not sure if anyone remembers who I am and it looks like a lot of the people who were around when I was most active are gone now, but hey.
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Elkhart! You haven’t been forgotten! I was actually thinking about you a month or two ago and went to Facebook creep but maybe you deactivated it or maybe we were never friends. But some of us oldies are still here…
 
Imbridus said:
ETA: Also, realized I should probably mention this as it's been a long time since my original account was deleted. This is Elkhart; not sure if anyone remembers who I am and it looks like a lot of the people who were around when I was most active are gone now, but hey.
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Welcome back!!!!!! I definitely remember you/am still here!!! Battie is fka batsenecal so she’s def someone who was previously around as well!
 
Imbridus said:
ETA: Also, realized I should probably mention this as it's been a long time since my original account was deleted. This is Elkhart; not sure if anyone remembers who I am and it looks like a lot of the people who were around when I was most active are gone now, but hey.
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Hello!!! Been a long time and I hope life has been kind 🧡
 
JaynaAli said:
Elkhart! You haven’t been forgotten! I was actually thinking about you a month or two ago and went to Facebook creep but maybe you deactivated it or maybe we were never friends. But some of us oldies are still here…
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Hi, Jayna! I did clean out my friends list a while ago and then deactivated for a while, but I brought it back recently. I don't post much these days as I honestly lead a pretty boring life, but feel free to add me back if you want (and that goes for anyone here; feel free to PM if you want a link/my name)!

SkiOtter said:
Welcome back!!!!!! I definitely remember you/am still here!!! Battie is fka batsenecal so she’s def someone who was previously around as well!
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Hi, Skiski!

battie said:
Hello!!! Been a long time and I hope life has been kind 🧡
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Hey there, Bats! Things have been okay. Still broke, still in way too much student loan debt, still living in the same crummy apartment, still definitely need a better job... but things are better mentally, at least. I'll take it. Hope things are going well on your end!
 
Imbridus said:
Right? My gen Z sister is pregnant now and it just feels... very early? She was born in 2000, for goodness' sake, surely it wasn't tha---oh, right. It's 2026 now. Dang.

ETA: Also, realized I should probably mention this as it's been a long time since my original account was deleted. This is Elkhart; not sure if anyone remembers who I am and it looks like a lot of the people who were around when I was most active are gone now, but hey.
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I've been thinking about you lately and wondering how you were doing! Glad to see you pop up.
 
Okay public health and wildlife friends, how many dead birds in my yard is too many dead birds in my yard? Different species, songbirds, the first one was alive and clearly unwell, the second one we found dead and have no idea how long it was out there.
 
_rae_ said:
Okay public health and wildlife friends, how many dead birds in my yard is too many dead birds in my yard? Different species, songbirds, the first one was alive and clearly unwell, the second one we found dead and have no idea how long it was out there.
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I’m no public health expert but that’s a yikes from me! What’s HPAI like in your area, any possible toxins?
 
_rae_ said:
Okay public health and wildlife friends, how many dead birds in my yard is too many dead birds in my yard? Different species, songbirds, the first one was alive and clearly unwell, the second one we found dead and have no idea how long it was out there.
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Any chance your neighbors have a rodent problem they're treating chemically, or a garden they're dumping a bunch of pesticides into?
 
kitzsuna said:
I’m no public health expert but that’s a yikes from me! What’s HPAI like in your area, any possible toxins?
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HPAI has been an issue in Minnesota but not as big of an issue recently. Also I thought waterfowl were the more likely
apoptosis09 said:
Any chance your neighbors have a rodent problem they're treating chemically, or a garden they're dumping a bunch of pesticides into?
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Possible in the neighborhood but unlikely in my immediate area. My neighbor is a big gardener but never sprays or kills the squirrels/rabbits or anything.
 
_rae_ said:
HPAI has been an issue in Minnesota but not as big of an issue recently. Also I thought waterfowl were the more likely
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waterfowl, and backyard flocks/poultry are the most susceptible and have the majority of H5N1 cases right now, but it can infect other birds. especially if infected geese are in your area.

call your local public health officials and they will hopefully come out and collect the birds. even if it’s not H5N1, if they do have some other zoonotic disease and other animals decide to have a snack out of them, that’s not great
 
Imbridus said:
ETA: Also, realized I should probably mention this as it's been a long time since my original account was deleted. This is Elkhart; not sure if anyone remembers who I am and it looks like a lot of the people who were around when I was most active are gone now, but hey.
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I'm still here! I just mostly lurk.

Edit: My absent brain did not finish the thought: Its nice to see you again!
 
vampyrica said:
waterfowl, and backyard flocks/poultry are the most susceptible and have the majority of H5N1 cases right now, but it can infect other birds. especially if infected geese are in your area.

call your local public health officials and they will hopefully come out and collect the birds. even if it’s not H5N1, if they do have some other zoonotic disease and other animals decide to have a snack out of them, that’s not great
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Ugh that’s my public health queen
 
Is this a fox or a coyote? 10-second dashcam video from tonight. Sharing it on a free Mega cloud storage account.

mega.nz

File on MEGA

mega.nz mega.nz

I'm generally located in the Southeast USA. Obviously if you look up those GPS coordinates please don't share the city or county in text form on SDN. 😛

I saw glowing eyes in the left lane and knew to slow down because furry buggers are unpredictable. Usually in this area it's a raccoon or opossum at that height (or deer if taller). This was a short, long thingy with I wanna say bushy tail (but not 100% sure about the tail). I've definitely seen coyotes (Eastern coyote?) here, but they're rare. I've never seen a fox in this state yet, but I'd love to.

It was clearer to the naked eye than on my silly dashcam. Sony Starvis 2 camera sensor (IMX675) @ 1440p resolution. Eventually I'll get a nicer 4K dashcam, but it's on the back burner. This is mostly for CYA accident/liar/crime prevention, but other than catching a TON of crazy drivers, I've mostly caught flash floods and really pretty sunsets and deer, raccoons, opossum, and now this thing lol.
 
Imbridus said:
Right? My gen Z sister is pregnant now and it just feels... very early? She was born in 2000, for goodness' sake, surely it wasn't tha---oh, right. It's 2026 now. Dang.
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What the skibidi 6 7 is this?!? But also, if Gen Z are in their 20s and even 30+, then that's understandable. Congrats and good luck to her.

Imbridus said:
ETA: Also, realized I should probably mention this as it's been a long time since my original account was deleted. This is Elkhart; not sure if anyone remembers who I am and it looks like a lot of the people who were around when I was most active are gone now, but hey.
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I didn't catch your Edit until Jayni mentioned it, and I went "Wait, Elkhart?!?" C**ist on a cracker barrel (@ Dubz), I totally thought you'd poofed for good! I have a short list of people on my phone of family, irl friends, and SDN frands to send happy thoughts/good vibes/prayers towards, and you're still on there haha.

So good that you said hello. I definitely haven't forgotten about you. :hello:
 
Stroganoff said:
Is this a fox or a coyote? 10-second dashcam video from tonight. Sharing it on a free Mega cloud storage account.

mega.nz

File on MEGA

mega.nz mega.nz

I'm generally located in the Southeast USA. Obviously if you look up those GPS coordinates please don't share the city or county in text form on SDN. 😛

I saw glowing eyes in the left lane and knew to slow down because furry buggers are unpredictable. Usually in this area it's a raccoon or opossum at that height (or deer if taller). This was a short, long thingy with I wanna say bushy tail (but not 100% sure about the tail). I've definitely seen coyotes (Eastern coyote?) here, but they're rare. I've never seen a fox in this state yet, but I'd love to.

It was clearer to the naked eye than on my silly dashcam. Sony Starvis 2 camera sensor (IMX675) @ 1440p resolution. Eventually I'll get a nicer 4K dashcam, but it's on the back burner. This is mostly for CYA accident/liar/crime prevention, but other than catching a TON of crazy drivers, I've mostly caught flash floods and really pretty sunsets and deer, raccoons, opossum, and now this thing lol.
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Hard to see from the video but I'd guess fox as eastern yotes are quite large and you'd probably be asking if it was a wolf lol. Eastern foxes can also be a bit bigger and darker than their relatives out west
 
apoptosis09 said:
Hard to see from the video but I'd guess fox as eastern yotes are quite large and you'd probably be asking if it was a wolf lol. Eastern foxes can also be a bit bigger and darker than their relatives out west
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The one eastern yote I saw a few years ago (under our deck) was a bit taller and larger than I was expecting (compared to the Colorado/Utah coyotes I've seen) and I did wonder if it was a large dog. Was definitely manufacturing sus and wolf-like in appearance.

Was easier to see with the naked eye compared to the grainy dashcam video, and it might have had a bushy tail, but I'm not sure. If that was a fox, that'd be my first, and I've always wanted to see a fox in person.
 
Stroganoff said:
The one eastern yote I saw a few years ago (under our deck) was a bit taller and larger than I was expecting (compared to the Colorado/Utah coyotes I've seen) and I did wonder if it was a large dog. Was definitely manufacturing sus and wolf-like in appearance.

Was easier to see with the naked eye compared to the grainy dashcam video, and it might have had a bushy tail, but I'm not sure. If that was a fox, that'd be my first, and I've always wanted to see a fox in person.
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I would say fox then! The size and posture are giving fox, although juvenile coyote is possible
 
I just got my 7-year Member tag!

Coincidentally, I was originally invited to SDN by some crazy-wild vetties! 😎

hyena.gif
 
battie said:
What did you do to get the Rocket Scientist tag? 👀
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One of my undergraduate degrees is in physics. SDN provided me with the Rocket Scientist tag after I completed a series of complex calculations that SDN sent to me. As I recall, I also had to write a detailed explanation to support the mathematical solutions to the questions that SDN sent to me, or something like that, to show that I could legit do the calculations on my own.
 
battie said:
So it means literal rocket scientist?!
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Nono, I said all that tongue-in-cheek as a joke. Hoped the smiley gave away my tone. I was just jokingly saying, "Yeah we can vouch for each other *wink wink*" sorta thing lol.

Stroganoff said:
Can vouch that Doctor-S and I worked together at SpaceX in 2018-19. 😛
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Doctor-S said:
Must have been someone else you met at SpaceX, and not me.
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I said that tongue-in-cheek as a joke haha. You don't remember when we worked on that one project at Lockheed in 2011? 😛

Doctor-S said:
But, I would love to be an astronaut! If you can make that happen, I'm all in!
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Yeah, same. There's definite physical health and endurance mandatory requirements that I likely wouldn't be cut out for. G-forces and good MSK and good cardiovascular fitness. With all my body's throwing at me, I'd have multiple disqualifications for an astronaut program on fitness/health alone.

But I did just recently verify NASA does use one of the systems I have years of expertise in (yay!), so I'm sort of fantasizing about eventually applying to join that team. Hopefully at a senior engineering level. I know government payscales might be lower than industry, but hopefully it's not 24/7 stress and 80 hour work weeks and taking call or getting called at 4 am when you're not on call or getting called when you're on vacation lol. Except I've heard there's massive budget cuts to NASA, NSF, NIH type places so there wouldn't be job security even in government jobs. But industry is just as scary right now.
 
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Imbridus said:
Right? My gen Z sister is pregnant now and it just feels... very early? She was born in 2000, for goodness' sake, surely it wasn't tha---oh, right. It's 2026 now. Dang.

ETA: Also, realized I should probably mention this as it's been a long time since my original account was deleted. This is Elkhart; not sure if anyone remembers who I am and it looks like a lot of the people who were around when I was most active are gone now, but hey.
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Hi friend, good to see you again 🙂
 
Stroganoff said:
Nono, I said all that tongue-in-cheek as a joke. Hoped the smiley gave away my tone. I was just jokingly saying, "Yeah we can vouch for each other *wink wink*" sorta thing lol.





I said that tongue-in-cheek as a joke haha. You don't remember when we worked on that one project at Lockheed in 2011? 😛


Yeah, same. There's definite physical health and endurance mandatory requirements that I likely wouldn't be cut out for. G-forces and good MSK and good cardiovascular fitness. With all my body's throwing at me, I'd have multiple disqualifications for an astronaut program on fitness/health alone.

But I did just recently verify NASA does use one of the systems I have years of expertise in (yay!), so I'm sort of fantasizing about eventually applying to join that team. Hopefully at a senior engineering level. I know government payscales might be lower than industry, but hopefully it's not 24/7 stress and 80 hour work weeks and taking call or getting called at 4 am when you're not on call or getting called when you're on vacation lol. Except I've heard there's massive budget cuts to NASA, NSF, NIH type places so there wouldn't be job security even in government jobs. But industry is just as scary right now.
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@Stroganoff, I knew you were having some fun with me, especially since you also got the Rocket Scientist tag. 🙂

I would still love to be an astronaut though, definitely count me and my cat in ... all systems go!

My cat could be the first feline on the moon!!!

astronaut.gif
 
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